TOPEKA — The Kansas Department of Labor said Thursday the state experienced a resurgence during recent weeks in fraudulent attempts to rip off the unemployment insurance trust fund.
Peter Brady, deputy secretary at the labor department, told a joint hearing of the House and Senate commerce committees of an uptick in suspicious initial claims for benefits that numbered between 1,000 to 1,500 per week. It doesn’t compare to the tens of thousands of corrupt attempts made early in the pandemic resulting in an estimated loss in Kansas of $700 million in state and federal unemployment benefit dollars to domestic and international crooks.
“The scale is drastically lower, but also an indication that we need to remain vigilant,” Brady said.